Boundaries
by HarmonyLover
Summary: Wish fulfillment/reaction fic for "I Do," in which events between Kurt and Blaine unfold a little differently, and Kurt's confrontation with Tina is a little more serious and involved. Also contends with Tina's behavior from "Sadie Hawkins" through "I Do." One-shot, complete.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of _Glee_; it all belongs to 20th Century Fox, Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, et al. I write these stories purely for enjoyment; no copyright infringement is intended. The songs, of course, are not mine either, and all due credit goes to the wonderful writers and performers of those songs.

**Author's Note: **This is a slightly revised and updated version of what I posted on my Tumblr. Reaction/wish fulfillment fic for "I Do," in which things happen a little differently. It also contends with Tina's behavior from "Sadie Hawkins" through "I Do."

* * *

**Boundaries**

Tina was waiting for them backstage, arms crossed and eyes narrowed, and Kurt was abruptly and painfully reminded of how much she had changed in the last year. He didn't know what exactly had changed her, but this was not the girl who used to strut around in Goth clothes and make them all laugh with her intimidation of Principal Figgins. This Tina was strange and not at all to Kurt's liking.

"So are you two back together?" she said coldly. "Sneaking off to make out in the car, singing for the reception - "

"Tina," Kurt said slowly, unsure how to approach the hurting girl in front of him, "that really isn't any of your business."

"Yes, it is, Kurt," she snapped. "You haven't been here, and you don't have any concept of what you did to Blaine. He made a terrible, terrible mistake, and you refused to hear him out or forgive him. You broke up with him and absolutely destroyed him."

Kurt's lips pressed tight, his jaw muscle twitching, and Blaine stepped forward, laying a hand on Tina's arm while his eyes pleaded silently with her.

"Tay-tay," he said earnestly and gently, "this really isn't the time to talk about this. Kurt and I haven't made any decisions, and we're still working out what we want. We're ... mending things. We're learning how to be better to each other, no matter where we end up going from here."

"We both made mistakes, Tina," Kurt added quietly, and Blaine turned a surprised face to him. "I know that. We both hurt each other so much, and we have to figure out how to keep that from happening in the future. But Blaine's right. We haven't decided what happens next."

"I know what happens next," Tina said furiously, fixing her angry eyes on Blaine. "You'll take him back," and she gestured scornfully to Kurt, "because that's who you are, because he's the moon and sun and stars to you and your huge heart couldn't do anything else. And at some point it will happen again. You'll fight or you'll argue or something will happen, and Kurt will take his self-righteous high ground and leave you in pieces. Again."

She turned to Kurt, eyes blazing now, and Kurt truly couldn't understand how the Tina he knew could have become this person.

"You weren't here to pick up the pieces," she hissed. "You didn't see him fall apart and lose weight and become a silent shell of himself. I did. You didn't see him turn down the lead in _Grease_, or see him crying after you and Rachel showed up and then left. I did."

Blaine blanched, shocked. "How did you - ?" he started, but Tina plowed right on, her face barely two inches from Kurt's, who could only stand frozen.

"You didn't see him disappear back to Dalton and then have to be coaxed to rejoin us at McKinley. You didn't see him fill every spare second with something, some ridiculous club or meeting or activity, because he was being eaten alive by the loneliness. I did. You didn't take care of him for two weeks when he walked around here with a terrible cold, or go over to his house and put Vicks Vapor Rub on his chest when he fell asleep, just to make sure he would feel better."

At that, Kurt balked, moving back from her in surprise, and Blaine gaped. "You - what?" he said incredulously. "No wonder I didn't remember using it!"

"I just wanted to help you - and you did feel better the next day," Tina said, smiling at him.

Kurt repressed the urge to be sick. He didn't know everything that was behind this, but what he'd just heard told him something was terribly wrong. Tina was truly scaring him now; this wasn't anything close to normal behavior for her.

Blaine shook his head back and forth, pressing his hands to his temples in agitation. "Tina - how could you - that's - "

Tina frowned, a flicker of unease showing on her face before she put a placating hand on Blaine's shoulder. "I didn't mean any harm, Blaine. I was trying to take care of you."

Blaine released a long breath through his nose, and then opened his eyes and deliberately stepped away from her so that she was no longer touching him.

"Don't," he commanded softly, somehow drawing the line between them even more firmly with the quiet tone. "Tina, I can't believe you would _do_ something like that. I thought we were friends."

"We are!" Tina exclaimed, but Blaine shook his head again.

"I don't know that we are, not when you do something that crosses so many boundaries," he said tiredly.

He reached over and touched Kurt's hand, just briefly. "I'll be outside. I need a minute," he said, and Kurt gave a quick nod, his eyes full of sympathy. The minute Blaine was out of sight, Kurt whirled on Tina, who looked as though she was still trying to process what had just happened.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" he said fiercely. "Where is the Tina Cohen-Chang that I know? Because the Tina I know would never assault someone in his sleep, especially not someone she considered a friend!"

Tina rolled her eyes. "I think 'assault' is a bit of a strong word, don't you?"

"No, I don't!" Kurt retorted, stepping closer to her again. "He was unconscious, Tina! He had no idea what you were doing and hadn't given you permission to do it. It was invasive and nonconsensual at best. You betrayed the trust he had given you as his friend. You crossed physical and mental boundaries that shouldn't have been crossed, and there is no_universe_ in which that is okay. Blaine doesn't need more betrayals by his friends, Tina. He's had more than enough of that, trust me."

"Oh, and you're one to talk," Tina spat. "You think you haven't betrayed him, Kurt? Betrayed your friendship with him, by treating him the way you have?"

Kurt went pale again, but his eyes were resolute. "I'm trying to fix that, Tina. I'm here. We're talking again – we have been talking since Christmas. I know that I've made mistakes, too, and done things wrong – but I'm not doing anything he hasn't consented to, and we're trying to be as clear as possible with each other, even when we don't agree about exactly where we stand."

Tina's angry mask had faltered as Kurt spoke, and when he finished she just looked confused and lost. "Do you really think I hurt him?" she asked timidly.

"Oh, I _know_ you did," Kurt said firmly. "I'm going to go make sure he's okay, and if I were you I would think carefully about how to apologize to him in a way he might actually accept."

Tina sighed, her shoulders slumping, and suddenly Kurt saw how lonely she was. The Diva persona was a mask; she was using it to hide a great deal of insecurity and hurt.

"I'll try," she whispered. "I'll think of something. I shouldn't have been so stupid. I know how much he loves you - I just hoped - "

"We're just friends, Tina," Kurt corrected. "Best friends, though, still, and he's told me how much your friendship means to him. Don't take advantage of his friendship or of him. He's fought so hard to be open about his sexuality and be himself in every way. Don't take that from him."

A tear slid down Tina's cheek, and she nodded. She reached tentatively forward and hugged Kurt quickly. "Tell him I'm sorry," she breathed in his ear, and then she was gone, slipping through the crowd toward the hotel elevators.

Kurt scrubbed his hands over his face. Had the entire glee club gone crazy when he left? If _Grease_ wasn't enough to show him how upside down everything was, this wedding certainly proved it.

He had to find Blaine.

He made his way out to the parking lot, and the slender figure of his ex-boyfriend (Kurt suppressed a pang in his chest at the "ex") was easy to spot, silhouetted against the sky by the clear moonlight.

"Hey," he said carefully, walking up and putting a light hand at the small of Blaine's back. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Blaine confessed, letting out a shaky laugh that was dangerously close to a sob. "Why is it that all I seem to be able to do is hurt people? Or when I'm not hurting them, I get hurt by them? Why don't I deserve to be happy?"

"That isn't true," Kurt whispered.

"Isn't it?" Blaine returned sharply. "My parents. Cooper. Jeremiah. The Warblers. Tina. I'm so tired of being hurt by people I care about, and of hurting them when I don't mean to. I try so hard to do everything right, and even when I do it isn't enough. When I fail, it's so damaging that I can't even look at myself in the mirror. I've – apparently I've been hurting Tina without even realizing it. I _destroyed_ what I had with you, when that was the last thing I wanted, when it was the one thing I _never_ wanted. And everyone I have ever really cared about, everyone I wanted to be loved by, has left me, in one way or another."

Kurt swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. He couldn't. He wasn't there, he wasn't - he wasn't ready for this - but he couldn't let Blaine do this to himself. He moved around so that he was looking into Blaine's eyes, his hand still resting at Blaine's waist.

"Do you know what I loved about today?" he asked. Blaine, startled by his sudden change in position, only shook his head, a silent, half-hopeful question in his expression.

"I loved," Kurt started slowly, "that you were _you_ again. That you were the Blaine I knew again, the Blaine I met at Dalton, full of confidence and with a smile that lights up the room. You have become so much stronger in these few months, Blaine, whether you can see it or not. I loved that you indulged all of my avoidance tactics about this not being a date, about us not being an us, even when we both knew I was avoiding the truth. I loved that you could let me avoid the truth and still manage to sass me about it. I loved singing with you again. I loved kissing you again. I loved that your arms still felt like home when we danced. I missed you."

Blaine was crying silently, tears sliding from the corners of his eyes, but the brilliant smile was hovering over his lips, threatening to take over his face, and Kurt couldn't resist pressing a kiss to his mouth, lingering there long and sweetly.

"I forgive you," he whispered. "I hurt you, too; I know I did, and I'm sorry. I'm still here, I'm still not saying goodbye to you, and I still love you."

Blaine inhaled shakily, his eyes searching Kurt's again and again to confirm what he was hearing. "Kurt - "

"I'm not - I need a little time. We need to work out a lot of things, and I know that," Kurt said, stumbling in his attempt to be articulate. "We're going to have to talk – a _lot_ – and figure out what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again. But - but can we be _us_ tonight, and leave the hard parts for tomorrow? We have time to work things out, Blaine. I promise you, we have time. Right now, I just want to love you again."

"_Yes_," Blaine murmured. "God, Kurt, _yes_. I won't push you, I promise; you can have all the time you need. _We'll_ take all the time we need, and make sure we work out the hard parts this time. I'll wait for you as long as you want, as long as I know we'll be us in the end." Then he gathered Kurt against him and kissed him until they were both dizzy with desire and lack of oxygen, their hands trembling as they remapped each other's bodies.

Kurt paused, finally, and leaned his forehead against Blaine's, giving his (ex?) boyfriend a seductive smile. "In that case, I think there's a hotel room waiting for us."

They linked hands and walked rapidly toward the hotel, and the stars blessed them on their way, twinkling in the night sky.


End file.
